


The D20 Job

by luna55



Category: Leverage
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Fun, Glamor Bard, Hardison gets everyone to play Dungeons and Dragons, Heist, Illusionist, OT3, Open-hand monk, Paladin Oathbreaker, Rogue Thief, Video & Computer Games, Video game convention con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 10:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21618364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luna55/pseuds/luna55
Summary: Hardison manages to convince the rest of the crew to try Dungeons and Dragons, the storyline of which seems rather a lot like their most recent Con.Fun little romp through a D&D oneshot interspersed with the crew actually on a job and taking down a major crook in the Videogaming world.Inspired by the wonderful Pia's Artwork,You can find more of their work here: https://piadoesart.tumblr.com/post/189392539764/alrighty-here-is-my-collab-art-with
Comments: 5
Kudos: 16
Collections: Leverage Reverse Bang 2019





	The D20 Job

**Convention Hall**   
_1 week ago_

“It was the Venice Two-step, I’m telling you.”

“No, it wasn’t, it was the Paris Fly-by, the Venice Two-step needs a getaway boat.”

“No, it doesn’t, it was a Venice two-step because when we began the wind-down –”

Hardison and Eliot were interrupted by the sound of Nate shutting the car trunk emphatically. They looked up from their argument and saw that both Nate and Sophie were looking at them expectantly.

“What?” Hardison asked them.

Nate just looked pointedly over their shoulders, and when Hardison and Eliot turned around, Parker was nowhere to be seen.

“Dammit, Hardison, she was with you.” Eliot marched back into the convention venue, scanning around for the blonde amongst the mess of booths and cosplayers. He eventually found her by a booth selling elaborate rigs for various cosplay body extensions.

“What are you doing, Parker, we gotta get outa here,” Eliot hissed, catching her elbow and trying to pull her along.

“I wanted to see how they made them,” she said, as if it was a perfectly reasonable delay. “I thought they could improve my harnesses.”

But she allowed herself to be pulled along and, with only a few distractions as Parker gravitated to the shiniest costumes, they were soon outside again with the group.

They watched as Mike Tasler, the director of Elisium games, was led away into a waiting FBI vehicle. Hardison and Eliot fist bumped, Parker smirked.

Nate looked at the group. “Right, ah, good work everyone.”

Hardison bounced gleefully. “who'd've thought we'd steal a videogame convention! Y'all are lucky you had me, let me tell ya.”

“Sure,” said Nate as he got in the car, Sophie settling gracefully into the passenger seat. “Don't forget to tie up the loose-ends!”

“Please,” said Hardison dismissively. “We'll see you Saturday for that game, right?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” said Nate as he drove away, “Saturday.”

“He's gonna be there, right?” Hardison said to the other two.

Eliot patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “Yeah man, he'll be there, can we go?”

The three wandered off towards the rank of taxis waiting down the road.

**Leverage HQ**

_Present day_

To say that Hardison was excited was an understatement, he had been planning this for months, he'd mapped out the perfect campaign, just a one-shot, to see how it went. He hadn't thought he'd get Sophie and Nate to join, but Sophie had jumped at the chance to promote more 'in-group bonding' as she put it, and where Sophie went, so too bumbled Nate pretending he wasn’t following along. It had fit perfectly when they had wound up at the video-game convention for the sting on Elisium.

To be honest, he just couldn't wait to spend a date with Eliot and Parker that didn't involve jumping off a building or listening to more country music.

Eliot had been easy, in fact, Eliot's response had come straight out of left field.

“You wanna play 5? Well, sure, I guess, I mostly switched to Pathfinder after version 4, if I wanted to play with spreadsheets I'd have become an accountant, you know. But anyway, sure I'm down, when do you wanna start? Can I check out your rulebooks?”

Hardison had stared at Eliot as if he'd grown an extra head and Eliot had shrugged and said “You never know when you might have to fight a warlock,” and that had been that.

Eliot seemed as excited as Hardison. He spent Saturday morning cooking up various treats and snacks which he claimed were traditional, and talking excitedly about his character. Hardison had offered to make one for him, but Eliot had just looked at him until he had looked away and muttered about going to check on the thingumywhatsit in the whatsabout.

As she always did, Parker appeared by Eliot’s elbow to monitor the cooking process and scoop up any overlooked treats.

“Ready to roll your first character?” he asked.

Parker shrugged. “Don’t you need to do it too?”

“Already got one. He's a monk, right, great unarmed fighting skills, but he can also go into this meditative trance and heal himself.”

“Heal himself, through meditation,” scoffed Parker.

“I met a guy in Nepal who can actually do that,” defended Eliot, “Control your thoughts, control your body.”

Parker shrugged and went back to stealing bites of Eliot’s food. She had been a little harder to convince, given she didn't see the point of sitting around saying you were doing cool things when you could actually *do* cool things.

She got a little more excited when Hardison started talking character creation with her. He was outlining the races, “You can really be whoever you want, human, gnome, half-orc, elf, dragon-”

He didn't get to finish the word before Parker jumped in. “I want to be a half-dragon elf thief.”

“That’s not how it works,” began Hardison, but some rules just weren’t worth following. He quickly smashed together the characteristics of elves and dragons to get something not too game-breaking before moving on with the rest of the character sheet.

He had made Nate and Sophie's characters for them, knowing they would probably turn up late and wanting to kick off quickly. Sure enough they turned up just at the time they'dagreed to start, and Hardison had to give a rushed explanation of the Glamour Bard, and the Broken-Oath Paladin driven by the thirst for vengeance after the death of this beloved - dog, he'd changed quickly at Nate's warning look.

Nate took his character sheet, scoffed and said “Really, Hardison?”

Hardison looked away and gathered everyone to the table. Right. Time to start setting the scene.

“You meet in a tavern, you've been working together for years, and now it is time to plan your next heist. In just over a week there will be a grand market, all the people of the town come together to present their masterpieces, the blacksmiths, the tailors, the toymakers, carpenters, weavers, you name it, they’re there. You have heard that the chief of one of the guilds has been sneaking spies into the smallest shops in the guise of customers and stealing their ideas, recently he stole the exhibition piece of the master carpenter, and you’ve been tasked to get it back…”

**Leverage HQ**

_A little more than a week ago_

“Meet Mike Tasler. He’s the head of Elisium Games, major player in the video games market. They only started a few years ago, but have shot to fame after three hit games at the last three Electronic Games Expos. Turns out, they've been sending in 'potential customers' as corporate spies to small indie workshops to steal their ideas. They trawl Kickstarter and Indigogo wherever they can for ideas, then make them bigger, better and with more money.The game they're launching this Expo was written by a tiny start-up specialising in narrative games, they had written a whole language for this game, and Elisium stole it. We've been hired to steal it back.”

“Ok,”’ Nate said, spreading his arms wide, “Let's go steal a videogame convention.”

“Oh yeah,” said Hardison punching the air, “this is my _jam_!”

Eliot shook his head, managing Hardison was hard at the best of times, trying to keep him focused at a videogame convention was going to be a _nightmare_.

Parker just looked confused, “People really care about these things?”

Hardison looked hurt, “Babe, the videogame industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, everyone is looking for the next best thing, the next great hit. Major gaming companies work their people to exhaustion just to meet deadlines for these conventions, which can make or break a game. The games are pure artistry, they have to combine plot and graphics and keep someone’s interest for hours. They deal with every subject from war to angry geese.”

“Oh, I like that one!” perked up Parker, “you can steal all the things and make the farmer mad, stomp stomp stomp.” She giggled and Hardison had to suppress a smile.

**Leverage HQ**

_Present day_

“So Parker and I will go and scope out this guy’s warehouse, while Sophie and Nate find us an in with the dude?”

“Yes, of course, that sounds like a great idea,” said Sophie encouragingly, as Paker and Nate looked blankly at Eliot. “So, ok, I just tell you want I’m doing and then, I’m doing it?” she asked Hardison.

“Yeah, pretty much, tell me what you wanna do, we’ll roll some dice and see if you do it.”

“Ok, then, where is this Guild leader, what’s his name?”

“Ahm, Eric, his name’s Eric. As luck would have it, as you leave the Tavern you see him exiting the Town Hall.”

Sophie glanced at Hardison, “Ok, great. I’m going to use, um, _Enthralling Performance_ to captivate his attention.”

“What you going to perform?”

“Erm, well, acting, of course. I will recite a great monologue, after which he will be entranced by my performance and willing to work with us.” 

“Cool, as you begin to perform Eric is walking by you, he takes a few more steps and slowly stops, enthralled, turning back to watch you. You perform for one minute, and by the end have drawn quite the crowd. Remind me what your charisma modifier is.”

“My what? Oh yes, here it is, three.”

“Ok, which three people do you choose to enthral?”

“Three! Ok, well Eric, erm, does he have a bodyguard?” Hardison nodded, “good, well him too, and.” Sophie paused to think and a slow smile crossed her face, “Nate’s there too, isn’t he?”

Hardison nodded again and Nate looked up from the contemplation of his whiskey glass. “Hey, wait a minute-”

“Perfect,” said Sophie decisively, “so that’s the bodyguard, Eric and Nate.”

“They each get a saving throw, as do you Nate, just roll the d20. That’s the dice that goes up to 20, the red one, right in front of you, I’m pointing right at it. Great, good, thank you. Eric and his bodyguard spectacularly fail theirs, Nate? Oh ok, sorry Soph, Nate made his by the skin of his teeth. But you have Eric and his bodyguard enthralled by your performance.

Let’s see what the others are doing…”

**Convention Hall**

_A week ago_

Hardison and Parker rounded a corner in the main hall and came face to horribly familiar face with McSweeten. For a second Hardison didn't recognise him, dressed as he was in jeans and an R2D2 t-shirt, but he looked at them and did a double take.

“Agent Hagan, what a lovely surprise! Are you here for the convention as well?” McSweeten had enthused, ignoring Hardison as normal.

Parker looked momentarily shocked and leaned in conspiratorially “No, we're on a major undercover operation, strictly need to know, if you know what I'm saying.” She tapped her nose significantly as Hardison rolled his eyes in the background.

“Nate,” he murmured, “we got company.”

“What kind of company?” asked Nate from his seat in the bar.

“Agent McSweeten, how nice to see you, we always seem to be running into you in the oddest of places,” said Hardison more loudly, affecting that strange drawl it seemed he was doomed to spend his life repeating. “You here for the convention?”

“Yeah, I come every year, gotta find out about all the new games for my nephew, you know,” said McSweeten, clearly attempting to minimise his embarrassment in front of Parker. He looked at her nervously.

She smiled, or at least, moved her lips in a vague approximation of one.

“I'm afraid we're gonna have to get going,” said Hardison, nodding to McSweeten, “maybe we'll see you around.”

“Maybe we could get lunch,” called McSweeten to Parker as they started to move off.

“Um, uh, yeah,” she said, panicking slightly and mouthing 'lunch' at Hardison as they moved out of sight.

They were deep in whispered conversation when Eliot joined them a few minutes later, “What's up?”

“McSweeten, that FBI guy from the bank job, and that other one in the school and that _other_ other one.”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“He's here.”

“Dammit Hardi-Par- You two! How do you keep running into the ONLY FBI agents in the county who know who we are?!”

Parker shrugged, “He just wants lunch, it’s fine. We checked out security, they think they have a pretty sophisticated mechanism on the entrance to the room. But we can crack it in about 30 seconds. Best bet is the drives are in there.”

**Leverage HQ**

_Present Day_

“Dammit Hardison, you can’t just insert a player character, you’re the DM!”

“He’s an NPC, it’s totally legit man, and he’s _cool_, he’s a master of illusion, you want him on your side!”

“Shush you two, you’re going to mess up our sneaking,” Parker waves at the other two as she carefully moves her mini-figure down the corridor map on the table in front of them. Eliot hadn’t ever noticed the noise mini-figures made before, not until he saw Parker moving hers completely silently.

“It’s not in the game, Parker,” Eliot began and then gave up. “Ok, so Parker, you and I are sneaking down this dungeon corridor.”

“Right,” Hardison focused back in on the game. “At the end of the corridor, just by the door to the storeroom are two guards, they aren’t facing you at the moment, and they haven’t heard you, what do you want to do?”

Parker mimes zapping them with a tazer, Eliot and Hardison’s eyes meet in mutual exasperation. Eliot leaned forwards. “I use Flurry of Blows on them, they need to make a dex saving throw or be knocked prone, Parker you can just focus on the door.”

“Ok, I pick the lock.”

“Roll concentration, Eliot’s fighting right next to you’

“Phht, Eliot fighting’s never distracted me before!”

“It’s the rules, Parker, you have to roll for it.”

“Fine. Hah! Twenty!”

“Cool, you pick the lock no problem while Eliot deals with the guards - who both failed their saving throw by the way, did you jinx my dice?”

Eliot just smiled, “Would I do that, man?”

“You, you jinxed my dice, not cool man! Not. Cool.”

**Convention Hall**

_A Week Ago_

Two guys with slightly greasy hair were disappearing off around the corner as Parker finished picking the lock on the door. She looked up, “Oh, all done then?”

Eliot smirked, “Piece of cake,” he said as they hurried into the code room. Eliot kept watch as Parker hurried over to the computer, plugging a USB stick in and watching as Hardison’s virus quickly got to work.

She scanned the room, a slightly raised patch of floor caught her eye. She glanced over at Eliot. “We’re good,” she called.

“Nothing out here,” he replied.

Parker tested the raised patch of floor carefully with her foot, little give, nothing to suggest pressure sensors. Carefully she felt around it with her fingertips, there, to one corner of the tile, the slightest lip. Slowly she raised the tile.

“There’s a safe here,” she called. “Pathetic, I’ve seen more better ones in my hotel rooms.” She snorted and set to work. In a matter of seconds, she had it open to find a series of hard drives, some imprinted with company logos, most black.

“Hardison, I got a bunch of hard-drives here,” she called through her earpiece. “They don’t look like they belong to Elysium, it’s all different hardware to their main computer.”

“Hmm, maybe they’re from the other gamers. Bring them back, let me have a look. You got room for them too Parker?”

“Already got ’em,” said Parker, straightening up and lowering the tile back into place, she grabbed the usb stick from the computer and she and Eliot hurried back into the corridor, making it around the corner just as two conference-goers came into sight.

**Leverage HQ**

_Present Day_

“Parker, Eliot and The Magic Man are running down the corridor, Parker clutching the bag of gold that _wasn’t even part of the treasure_.”

Hardison looks pointedly at Parker, who shrugs, “You never leave the gold.”’

“You hear footsteps behind you in the corridor. Any second now they will around the corner and see the three of you making off with a decidedly suspicious bag. But never fear, Hardison casts Illusory Self, there are now two Magic Mans - Magic Men? Whatever, , the second runs in the opposite direction to meet the footsteps coming towards you.”

“We move faster, sacrificing some of our stealth to get out of sight before the cover is blown,” says Eliot, and Hardison nods and rolls a die.

“Ok,” he says, “You just about make it around the corner before anyone sees you. You seem to be on the home straight, you start to relax, until you come up to the exit to the warehouse and see an old friend in the doorway. He’s not looking into the warehouse, just looking around confusedly, but he is definitely blocking your way.”

“Ah, I think we can help there,” says Nate, surprising everyone, he had seemed to be paying little attention to the game so far. “Can’t we Soph, we’re in the square, aren’t we, let’s distract him.”

**Convention Hall**

_A Week Ago_

“Excuse me,” Nate asked McSweeten, “can you point me to the restroom, these damned cons are so big, I always get turned around.”

“I, um, I don’t actually work here,” McSweeten bumbled.

“You don’t? Oh I am sorry,” said Nate. “Guy in a nice suit like you, I thought for sure you must be something here. I’ll just be on my way then, shall I?”

He trailed off, realising his distraction tactic wasn’t working well enough. Sophie stumbled in to him. “Oh there you are,” she said to Nate, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, what are you doing over here?”

“I was just tryin’a find the restroom,” began Nate, but Sophie was looking closely at McSweeten.

“Fred?” she exclaimed suddenly, McSweeten started. “Is that you? It’s me, Sally, do you remember, must have been about four or five cons ago, we had that lovely time behind the, well you know,” she batted his arm, smiling at him suggestively.

“No, ma’am, I think you have me mistaken.” McSweeten looked visibly uncomfortable.

“I’m sure it’s you, you don’t remember me, of course that was before I started hanging out with this fellow, if you know what I mean. But I’m sure you must remember me, Denver, three, no, four years ago, there was that great pizza stand, queues for bloody miles. Comeon, you

McSweeten started to inch away, as Parker and Eliot slipped behind him and melted away into the crowds. “Sorry, Ma’am I really think you have the wrong person.”

“Come on sweetheart, stop bothering the nice man,” said Nate as he guided her away.

“Ah well, if you ever do ‘remember’ me, look me up,” she said with a wink over Nate’s shoulder as they walked off in the opposite direction to the one Parker and Eliot had taken.

**Leverage HQ**

_Present Day_

“Well, you’ve got the gold, you’ve got the plans, how are you going to stop the guy from doing this again next year when you’ve all skipped town?” Hardison looked around the group.

Parker was playing with her mini figure, Eliot shrugged, Nate was back to being disinterested. “Sophie?” Hardison prompted. “He is still enthralled by you.”

“Ooh, yes!” said Sophie. “Can I cast a spell on him, get him to admit his wrongdoing in front of everyone?”

“Well, what spells have you got?”

Sophie quickly skimmed her spell list “How about dominate person?” she asked, passing the sheet over.

Hardison read through the description. “Yep, that should do it.”

Sophie waved her hands in the air as if attempting to cast a spell as Hardison rolled the dice. “Did it work?” she said

“Why don’t you tell him what to do and see what happens,” suggested Hardison. “You’re in the main square, where everyone has gathered for the opening of the exhibition, Eric is about to go on stage, what do you want him to do?”

Sophie thought for a moment and said, “Go up on stage, start his speech talking about the creativity and skill on display here and then admit what he has done, how he has stolen other’s work to profit off of it, how he has sold people’s designs and kept the money for himself, all of it.”

“Eric walks up onto the stage: ‘Friends, colleagues, fellow inhabitants of this lovely town, I am so glad to welcome you today our annual exhibition. I know how much time, and work and effort we have all put into our designs for this year, I for one am so excited to see what you’re all going to present. To come up with astonishing new inventions year after year takes creativity, skill and dedication, something I myself know… nothing about.’.” Hardison’s tone changes, “Eric continues with his speech, his face looking confused as he lists the inventions he has stolen, how he has sold them in other towns to profit off then, how he plans to continue to do so, the crowd starts to make murmurs of anger as the whole sorry saga unfolds…”

**Convention Hall**

_A Week Ago_

The video continued to play as the crowd got steadily angrier, murmurs of shock and exclamations of ‘I knew it’ grew steadily into irate shouts as the crowd merged into an angry mob. Mike Tasler hurried off the stage, not looking where he was going as he began to run out of the convention centre, rounding a corner and colliding with a surprised McSweeten, who had seen the video and slipped backstage, coming here had been a double success, he’d scoped out some great games for his nephew _and_ had had another case fall into his lap all neatly tied up with a bow. 

Sally - that strange woman from earlier - had smiled and said, “Oh, did you want Mike – he set off running that way,” and McSweeten had easily cut him off.

In Lucille Hardison pumped his fist in victory and Eliot just about managed to wipe the adoring smile off his face by the time Hardison looked at him.

In Mike’s office, Parker smiled as she carefully placed the (now copied and backed up) hard-drives back into the safe, ensuring that everything was exactly as it had been when she arrived before, apparently, vanishing from sight.

**Leverage HQ**

_Present Day_

“Hey guys, great game, y’all did really good for your first time!’” said Hardison.

Eliot clapped Sophie on the shoulder, “Nice one with the spell, you did real good.”

Parker turned to Hardison. “So where is it?” she asked

“Where’s what?”

“The bag of gold I stole, where is it?”

“Parker, it’s a game, there is no bag of gold, it’s not real-” Hardison began to explain, before catching the amused looks that Eliot and Parker were sharing. As he trailed off, they began to laugh.

**Parker's flat**

_Two days later_

Parker enters her flat, pretending she doesn't hear the hurried sounds of movement, there are only two people who know how to get in here, and she trusts them both. She wanders through to the bedroom to find two brown sacks tied at the neck with rope. Opening each one, she smiles. 

Hardison tries not to breath too loudly inside the closet as Parker lies back on her bed and begins to unwrap the chocolate coins from their gold wrapping. Outside the window, Eliot, hanging by his fingertips slowly inches his way along to the corner drainpipe, which he hopes will be strong enough to help him climb down. 

Surprising Parker might not be easy, but it sure was fun.


End file.
